I'm Home Now, Captain
by Sugaby
Summary: [A short oneshot set after RE6] Chris thinks the steak is too dry although he's not an expert but he doesn't have to be because Piers makes a full recovery and knows just how it's meant to be.


**AN** I spent one night browsing _chris piers_ on tumblr and I got overwhelmed and this is what came out of it. I also finished their campaign the other day...yeah, and I left a lengthy post on my tumblr about how they, along with the other re6 characters, make me feel. Moving on, this is pretty short. If there has to be a theme for this or if you want the mood to be set then I recommend '_Too Much_' by B1A4. It's from their new album and I promise it'll make more sense if you read the lyrics.

* * *

><p>The steak is dry when Chris bites into it. He chews it steadily and tries to gather up its flavours and hidden juices to make it better but nothing changes. It could just be him but there's a part of him that says today's speciality seems to be missing something to it. He's not an expert but there's a feeling, and it's strong.<p>

It's probably..._not like back home_.

No, of course it's not. Not that he would be know that one hundred percent but he knows someone who would. Or rather he did know. And that same someone had spared himself an introduction and had expressed his view on the meal instead. But oh, there had to be a definite meaning behind those words. Chris wasn't able to understand back then, but now it's almost so clear it's blinding and that's what he blames the migraines he gets sometimes on.

Because it's not the alcohol he's consumed too much of in a short space of time.

That someone would have his head if he knew. The Chris Redfield sitting in this bar and trying to understand what was so good about the steak a few months ago isn't the same man that someone would recognise, physically yes but not in every other area such as the persona that builds him up to be who he is. A hero, a legend, the kind of person anyone searching for hope would look up to in admiration. Chris Redfield was that beacon of hope for that someone and it was his duty to keep it that way until he stepped down and passed on the job, or at least that was the plan.

Now all Chris is sums up to how the steak is as he cuts in to it again;

Dry...Broken...and not how he should be. Chris swears he can't remember feeling this way or confused, with or without suffering from a head trauma and having amnesia. Maybe forgetting everything again would be for the best. But when he thinks twice about it he has to wonder if that really would solve all his problems.

His cellphone in his pocket lights up and rings with an incoming call. Chris hasn't wanted to speak to anyone, Leon and not even his sister Claire, for a while now. But when he sees the caller ID it rings importance in his head and he answers it, only sparing a moment of hesitation out of worry but he really has to know.

"...Yes, hello?" Chris speaks first.

_"It's a remarkable full recovery." _The doctor informs him straight away._ "And it's like nothing I've ever seen before! The antibodies in the blood that was extracted seems to have bonded and fused with his cells which has re-made them entirely in to new, stronger cells that have a higher performance of regeneration! It's obvious that we still have to fun a few tests here and there in case there are any sudden changes but other than that, Mr Redfield your partner is free to be discharged."_

Chris is silent for a while at first. He can't believe that a full recovery was even possible, let alone successful. It's what he had been hoping for yet a part of him was holding out to be prepared for signs of deformity, not just evidence of the accident but means to keep him feeling guilty. "...Alright, that's fantastic. Thank you, Doctor."

He hangs up then leans back in his chair and just sits there quietly for a bit, taking everything in slowly. And then the plate of the steak meal with steamed vegetables on the side is pushed back away from him as he decides that he's done with it. It doesn't taste good to him and maybe that's because it's not meant for him and it never was.

He'll just have to wait. By all means, he'll wait like he waited for _him_ to stop messing around and open the escape pod so that they could both leave the underwater lab together. He'll wait like he waited for the other team's helicopter to pick him up from drifting along the ocean. And he'll wait like he waited to be woken up from what he begged to be a nightmare.

Chris gets up from the table and leaves the bar, and he walks outside in the dim sunlight and decides that he'll wait for Piers back at home.

Two days later, it's not known this time if the steak is edible to accurate measures. Chris has cooked it this time, putting his apartment kitchen to good use for a few hours. But he won't be the one to eat it. If he did then he still wouldn't know about the way it's meant to taste. How could he? There's only one person who could know and who he trusts more than anyone else to judge his attempt properly.

He just has to wait, and soon enough Piers will tell him.

Piers really had made a full recovery. His beautiful eyes match, his skin is back to its smooth self and although the arm that had once resembled Pikachu was bandaged up and sitting in a sling he still felt good. How could he not? "Captain, thank you." He says after he swallows his first bite of the home cooked steak.

Chris figures he means for everything, not just the steak, and he nods at him.

"And Chris," Piers calls him again, setting down his knife and fork and looking straight at him. It's one of those rare times when he drops formality and calls his captain by his name but those times are special. "You sure know how to cook a nice steak."

"It's nothing, really. And besides...I'm sure it's not like-"

"No, it _is_ just like back home."

Chris looks at him, slightly surprised and most of all relieved. He wanted to start fixing what he could, as much as he could. He didn't know where else to start but from the beginning just like when they first met. Doing this was for the good of the future-_their_ future. And he needs it to start looking bright already because as much as he is to Piers a promising figure to look up to, to him Piers is everything he puts his hope and best efforts in to.

"I'm _home now_, Captain." Piers says, a smile coming to his face. "And I'm right here with you."


End file.
